Penn State safety enters transfer portal

Penn State redshirt freshman safety Enzo Jennings has officially entered the transfer portal after playing in one game during his two seasons in Happy Valley, On3 confirmed.

He played in his only game in two seasons against Illinois on Dec. 19, 2020. He was one of 16 true freshmen to play that season for the Nittany Lions.

Just last week, Penn State lost another four-star safety to the transfer portal, Tyler Rudolph. Jennings becomes the second four-star safety to depart from Happy Valley in less than two weeks.

Jennings was a four-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class. He boasted 31 scholarship offers from across the country when he was coming out of high school. He officially committed to Penn State on June 27, 2019.

He attended Oak Park High School in Detroit, Michigan and was selected to play in the Under Armour All-America Game. As a senior, he posted 55 tackles and two interceptions. In 2018, he racked up 54 tackles, two interceptions, and four fumble recoveries.

He will now search for a new home and will likely have a large number of suitors. Jennings was likely buried on the depth chart at Penn State, thanks to the remarkable talents of Jaquan Brisker, who has already accepted an invitation to the Reese’s Senior Bowl. Brisker is one of the nation’s very best at his position and he would be tough to beat out for just about any safety in the country, let alone a redshirt freshman like Jennings.

Jaquan Brisker stated his claim as one of the best secondary players amongst all Power 5 teams

🦁 89.5 coverage grade (4th)

🦁 105 rec yds allowed (6th)

🦁 44.7 NFLPR when targeted (9th)

🦁 18 run def stops (T-8th)

🦁 0 penalties committed all year#WeAre | @JaquanBrisker pic.twitter.com/akxu4rpB61

— Whiteout Weekly (@whiteoutweekly) November 29, 2021

Next steps for Enzo Jennings

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.